LATHROP - Two boys tossed a football back and forth while other children ran and played in the streets Friday in a tranquil Lathrop community where crime rarely occurs.

Children's laughter could be heard over the distant sound of lawn mowers in a neighborhood lined with large two-story homes and well-kept yards. A set of tire tracks across the grassy lawns of two homes were the only remnants of a homicide scene that kept residents awake Thursday while the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office stayed overnight investigating Lathrop's first homicide of 2013.

"This is a quiet neighborhood," said Onofre Cabero, 64. "Everybody knows everybody, and we all like it here."

The silence was broken about 10 p.m. Thursday when gunshots rang out, possibly on Sedona Lane, and a small blue car drove into the front yard of a home around the corner in the 100 block of Reiger Drive, witnesses said. The driver, suffering from at least one gunshot wound, exited the vehicle and went to the front door to ask for help. A passenger in the front seat, also suffering from at least one gunshot wound, appeared to be dead, neighbors said.

Lathrop Police Services deputies and other emergency responders converged on the scene. The passenger, identified as 19-year-old Dashawn Lamont Johns, was flown to a hospital in Modesto, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

The driver, identified only as a 23-year-old black man, was in the intensive care unit at a hospital Friday, his condition unknown, deputies said. While being transported to the hospital, he told deputies he and Johns were being chased by a black van when the shooting occurred, authorities said.

Neighbors on Sedona Lane heard four to six gunshots, but Marcela Blanco, 17, a resident of Reiger Drive, said she heard only the last shot fired. Blanco said she was stunned when she learned two people had been shot.

"We were really surprised because, like one of the officers told us, you hardly ever hear about anything like this happening in our area," Blanco said. "No robberies, no gunshots or anything like that. This is unusual for us."

Detectives from the Sheriff's Office responded to take over the investigation. They have yet to establish a motive for the shooting, and no arrests have been made, authorities said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sheriff's Office at (209) 468-4400. Cellphone users can text a tip to CRIMES (274637) by entering the keyword "SJSO" followed by their tip.